UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab told BBC Radio 4‘s Today programme this morning that there will be no tanker swap and ‘there is no quid pro quo’ referring to the idea that the UK may release the Grace 1 tanker seized off the straits of Gibraltar in return for Iran releasing the Stena Impero tanker it seized on 19 July.

BBC News and Reuters report that emergency talks to ease tensions in the Gulf and salvage the JCPOA have been held in Vienna. After meeting officials from the UK, France, Germany, Russia and China, a senior Iranian official said the atmosphere had been “constructive”. Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said he considered the seizing of its oil tanker Grace 1 in breach of the JCPOA, and Iran also described as “provocative” UK proposals for a European-led mission to escort tankers through the Strait of Hormuz. Araghchi said after the meeting: “The atmosphere was constructive. Discussions were good. I cannot say that we resolved everything, I can say there are lots of commitments.” China’s representative Fu Cong said all parties had “expressed their commitment to safeguard the JCPOA and […] expressed their strong opposition against the US unilateral imposition of sanctions.”

The Times and Reuters report that the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization Ali Akbar Salehi has said that Iran will restart activities at the Arak heavy water nuclear reactor, which can convert spent nuclear fuel to plutonium used in nuclear warheads. Iran stopped complying in May with some commitments in the JCPOA after the US unilaterally withdrew from the accord last year and reintroduced sanctions on Tehran. The move will mark a serious increase in Iran’s nuclear capacity.

BBC News, the Guardian and Times report that a second Royal Navy warship has arrived in the Gulf to protect UK-flagged commercial shipping, amid heightened tensions in the region. HMS Duncan has joined the frigate HMS Montrose to escort vessels through the Strait of Hormuz. HMS Montrose has so far accompanied 35 vessels through the strait, according to the MoD. Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said the UK continued to push for a diplomatic resolution to the situation. He said: “Freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz is vital not just to the UK, but also our international partners and allies. “Merchant ships must be free to travel lawfully and trade safely, anywhere in the world.” Wallace added the Royal Navy will continue to provide a safeguard for UK vessels “until this is the reality”. The Independent reports that Chair of the Iranian Parliament’s national security and foreign policy committee Mojtaba Zonnour has claimed that the Grace 1 will be released soon.

The Telegraph reports that divisions have emerged over plans for a European naval mission in the Persian Gulf, with the UK suggesting the operation would need US support while France and Germany insist it stay independent. In a first sign that the UK may move closer to the US position on Iran under Boris Johnson, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said a European mission was probably not “viable” without US support.  “I think we do want to see a European-led approach, but that doesn’t seem to me to be viable without American support as well,” Raab told the Times. That marks a shift from predecessor Jeremy Hunt who proposed a European naval mission separate from the US Operation Sentinel.

Reuters reports that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stated that Israel’s US-backed Arrow 3 ballistic missile shield has passed a series of live interception tests over Alaska and casted the achievement as a warning to Iran. Jointly manufactured by Boeing, Arrow 3 is billed as capable of shooting down incoming missiles in space, an altitude that would destroy any non-conventional warheads. It passed its first full interception test over the Mediterranean Sea in 2015 and was deployed in Israel in 2017. “The performance was perfect – every hit a bull’s eye,” Netanyahu said in a statement announcing the three secret tests. Israel views the Arrow 3 as a bullwark against ballistic missiles fielded by Iran and Syria.

Reuters reports that Israel and the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen have rapped by the UN for the killing of children in a report to the Security Council. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that the highest number of Palestinian children had been killed or injured last year since 2014, mainly by Israeli forces, though no parties were blacklisted in the annex to the annual Children in Armed Conflict report. The Israeli UN mission did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the latest report. In 2015 the UN left Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas off the blacklist, after they had been included in an earlier draft, but criticised Israel over its 2014 military operations. Israel denied lobbying then Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the issue.

BBC News, the Guardian, Times and Reuters report that a British woman who alleged she was raped in Cyprus has been arrested on suspicion of making a false allegation. The 12 Israeli males arrested over the alleged attack, which was said to have taken place on 17 July in Ayia Napa, have all been released. The Foreign Office said it was supporting a British woman and her family following her arrest in Cyprus. She will appear in court on Monday, police spokesman Christos Andreou said.

The Guardian reports that Syrian refugees in Istanbul and Beirut have been targeted by immigration authorities in recent weeks, with more than 1,000 detained in Turkey’s biggest city last weekend and given 30 days to leave, raising fears of mass deportations. Refugees have described a whirlwind deportation process of being transferred through three detention facilities and forced to sign papers saying they “voluntarily” agreed to return to Syria. The scale and speed of the arrests mark a reversal of Turkey’s open-door policy toward Syrian refugees – a hallmark of the war’s early years during which up to 5 million people crossed the Turkish border.

The Telegraph reports that a group of self-styled British revolutionaries who travelled to Syria to help build a democratic society in the Kurdish north say they will defy new government legislation which would see them prosecuted on terrorism charges. The Home Office revealed in May that it planned to designate northern Syria a “no-go area” and that British citizens would have 28 days to leave or face a 10-year prison sentence if they attempt to return to the UK. It said the law was aimed at tackling terrorism, though volunteers accuse the Government of failing to distinguish between Britons in the jihadist enclave of Idlib, in Syria’s northwest, and those working in the northeast alongside Kurdish groups that helped defeat IS.

The Times, Financial Times and Reuters report that Bahrain has executed two Shia Muslim activists who human rights groups say were tortured in prison before they confessed to terrorism charges. Ali Mohamed Hakeem al-Arab and Ahmed Isa Ahmed Isa al-Malali were killed by firing squad at the Jaw prison, south of Manama. They had been convicted of terrorism offences after apparently admitting possession of firearms and killing a policeman.

In the Times, Michael Burleigh argues that the West “cannot afford to lose Turkey”: “We need to keep Erdogan in the fold as both Russia and China try to gain influence in Ankara”.

In the Independent, Borzou Daragahi examines “how the ‘deep state’ is trying to undermine Trump’s incoherent foreign policy and save the world”: “it is unclear whether the uncertainty of the Trump era will end once he is out of the White House – but many current and former officials are trying to limit the damage he creates”.

In the Independent, Richard Hall interviews the commander of Iraq’s special forces: “With ISIS plotting a comeback, Iraq’s famed ‘Golden Division’ prepares for the long fight”.

All the Israeli media report that Jewish Home and United Right leader Rafi Peretz conceded first place on the party list to Ayelet Shaked in order for her to lead the United Right party. Yediot Ahronot reports that there are still disagreements. “Peretz is insisting that the merged party’s first demand will be that he hold onto the education portfolio, and not, for example, that the justice portfolio be given to Shaked.  Furthermore, the New Right is demanding four slots in the first group of nine, whereas the Jewish Home and the National Union want New Right’s fourth representative to be in tenth place and not in ninth place. There is also the question of whether they will explicitly state that they will recommend Binyamin Netanyahu for prime minister after the elections. Netanyahu worked in the last few days to have the two parties run separately and for Peretz not to concede first place to Shaked.  Last night at the Ramada Hotel in Jerusalem Shaked, Peretz and Bennett met to hammer out an agreement. Peretz was seen talking on the telephone with Prime Minister Netanyahu a short time before entering the meeting. In the course of the meeting, aside from arguing over the places on the list, Peretz demanded a commitment that they not attack Netanyahu during the campaign as well as a commitment that everyone on the list would only recommend Netanyahu as prime minister to the president. The New Right refused that condition and said that it would not recommend Netanyahu if he did what he did in the past and first brought in parties that do not belong to the right wing (Tzipi Livni and Ehud Barak in the past).“

Chanel 12 News last night reported that the Prime Minister’s wife Sara had conversations with Rafi Peretz’s wife Michal trying to convince her to tell her husband not to give up his position as leader of a merged right wing party to Ayelet Shaked. In closed-door meetings, Michal revealed that the Netanyahu couple have pressed her husband not to merge with Shaked. “Netanyahu promised that if Rafi didn’t concede to Shaked, he would be education minister, and that if he did, he wouldn’t be education minister. That is because Sara says that Ayelet is the one who framed Netanyahu.”

Haaretz reports Balad will now run as part of a Joint List, which is comprised of Hadash, Taal and Raam. Ayman Odeh will lead the party, followed by Mtanes Shehadeh, Ahmed Tibi and Mansour Abbas. The Joint (Arab) List, which split into two separate factions in the election earlier this year and only won 10 seats combined having previously won 13.

In Yediot Ahronot from Ben-Dror Yemini writes: “The merger between Ayelet Shaked and Rabbi Rafi Peretz was achieved despite enormous disparity in their positions. However, as opposed to the odd merger that was reached on the left, the merger between Shaked and Peretz isn’t going to boomerang because their positions are very close to one another on the Palestinian issue, which is the important sphere…. As opposed to the right, which seems poised to overcome its divisions, the situation on the left has never been worse. For a moment it seemed that Netanyahu was losing the public’s confidence.… So how exactly is Yair Golan, a security and foreign policy hawk, who just the other day said that the Golan would remain part of Israel and who probably doesn’t support the establishment of a Palestinian state, supposed to become part of Meretz? Is that serious? And what is Amir Peretz doing with Orly Levy-Abekasis? The hesitant voters generally tend to make their decisions based on a party’s position on the Palestinian issue. Peretz is a through and through dove. Levy-Abekasis is a hawk—at least as far as we know. So what are they doing together?  As everyone knows, politics isn’t a game of principles; it’s primarily a game of compromises. Forging impossible mergers, such as between Raz and Golan and between Peretz and Levy-Abekasis, may be necessary. But this time those mergers are going to prove to be an own-goal. After the initial enthusiasm wears off, Meretz and the left wing will have lost its main weapon. Up until now the left has fought the battle against corruption with clean hands. Not anymore. How can you be against Netanyahu but in favour of Barak? Stav Shaffir’s remarks against the millionaire [Barak] whom she’s now embraced are going to be played and replayed over and over. Instead of a fight against corruption we are going to hear accusations about hypocrisy. The left, in its distress, has scored an own-goal. The moment Eldad Yaniv and Stav Shaffir gave Barak their seal of approval, there has only been one result: the fight against corruption has just been dealt a knockout blow.”

All the media report the successful test of the Arrow-3 missile defence system in Alaska.  Channel 13 News security analyst Alon Ben David notes the successful test: “Changes Israel’s position in the global balance of power, and turns it into the only country in the world that has a defence system that consists of four layers of protection against the broad array of rockets and missiles that surround it. The Arrow-3 missile system was operational prior to the most recent test, but that test is a very significant step up. The interception capabilities that were tested pre-empt the Iranians’ technology—to wit, they are capable of countering threats that the Iranians are only anticipated to develop at a future point in time. Missile defence has become in the past three decades the leading and possibly most fertile field in the security relationship between Israel and the United States.”

All the papers report that 12 Israeli young men arrested in Cyprus on suspicion of rape have been released and the British girl who accused them has been arrested. Israel Hayom reports on their return to Israel, declaring “the truth came to light.”